


The End (To My Beginning)

by Take_Me_To_My_Fragile_Dreams



Series: To Capture A Drowning Heart [2]
Category: Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Cannibalism, Food is People, M/M, Mild Gore, OFC - Freeform, Siren!Alec, Sirens, contains the missing scene from Sink Like A Stone where Alec is attacked, mentions of cannibalism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-08
Updated: 2014-07-08
Packaged: 2018-02-07 23:15:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1917699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Take_Me_To_My_Fragile_Dreams/pseuds/Take_Me_To_My_Fragile_Dreams
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Before Alec met Magnus he was a child struggling to survive, abandoned by his parents like so many of his kind and left to fend for himself. This is his story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The End (To My Beginning)

**Author's Note:**

> This verse has refused to leave me alone for a while now so I finally decided to cave and write the little loose ends that have been bothering me. If anyone wants to see something in particular drop a comment and I'll do me best to deliver :)

Alec grew up killing humans. As a child he was taught early on that it was more often kill or be killed in life and that if he wanted to survive he had to be the best predator he could be. Parents weren't really as big a thing as in the human world, since mermaids were wayward creatures that seldom stuck around in one area for long. As for the father's, they often abandoned ship as soon as possible, lest their partners turn on them _(and Alec had witnessed that a time or two)._ Mermaid flesh was succulent to their kind, poisonous to others.

So, at age twelve _(a blink of an eye, really)_ Alec was left to fend for himself, left behind without even a goodbye from the woman who had birthed him.

* * *

His first attempt was pathetic at best, having only had experience with weakened and dying humans his mother had dragged down to their cave. He missed wildly and nearly got a spear through his tail for his efforts, the fisher shouting out in surprise and probably warning off other creatures.

The second, was better, and he used the darkness to his advantage, but the man was strong, sea worn and able to fight. Alec had no choice but to let him struggle back up to the surface, his fins too small for such a great task and his poison not yet potent enough to do much damage.

The third time, was the charm, and most gruesome. He was starving at that point, not having eaten in days, and it showed in his black predator's eyes.

It was a newly wed couple, taking a midnight boat ride out into the waves. He'd taken the husband first, slicing through the dark waters before darting up when the human had leaned too close to the edge, distracted by his new wife. This time, Alec hadn't tried to drown him, he'd gone straight for the throat, snarling and nearly rabid as he'd torn into vulnerable flesh.

His clawed hands tore out chunks of meat from the body, sending a thick layer of blood to the surface where the dead man's screaming wife sat, a wooden paddle churning up the ocean as she tried desperately to get to shore. She might have succeeded too, if Alec hadn't gone so long without food, if he hadn't lost himself so completely.

Her death, was not so quick, not so pleasant.

Afterwords, he could recall blinking at the sea of blood and leftover meat, delighted laughs ringing in his ears like music. The sound made his ears buzz and his head dizzy, and he could remember thinking distantly, that he was going to die in a sea of his own violence as the face of a beautiful woman cut through the crimson water, her smile as sharp as knives and her eyes as flat and dead as a shark's.

"My my," she'd purred, long black hair winding around her bare torso. "What do we have here?"

Alec had wondered if his death would be a fast one--and had thought, with a racing heart, that his chances were incredibly slim. He wished he was as poisonous to her as he was to others.

* * *

Her name was Rochelle and she did not intend to eat him. Instead, she brought him home to her sisters, who cooed and fretted over him like one would a pet. They accepted him because one of their own did, someone who was apparently high up in leadership, and tolerated his presence. They helped him learn how to hunt properly, helped show him the best places to find treasure and how to protect himself when vulnerable. But of them all, Rochelle, his 'savior' was the one who allowed him to sleep in her cave until they could find one for Alec to call his own. She taught him about the rune stones and the circle, about the rituals and the power of the ocean. It was she who walked him through his first song, who showed him how to use his voice to control the weather, to bring humans to their knees and to confuse other predators. She helped him bend his first metal, giving him tips on how to turn a large chunk of gold into something beautiful and wearable. Rochelle was by all means, the kin he'd never had. A mother, a sister, a friend...

So long as he followed his sisters ways, so long as he did not interrupt their way of life, he was welcome, useful even. And he lived, content with that, for more than a hundred years.

Until a drowning human with tropical eyes caught his own. Then, everything changed. And Rochelle couldn't allow him to stay anymore.

* * *

They find him by the shoreline, drifting lazily in the waves as he awaits his human's arrival. Their scales flash vibrant rainbows under the dying sun, a sea of beautiful predators all come to kill him.

"Alexander," Rochelle greets, eyes glinting sadness under the hard burden of what she has to do. There is a band of gold around her right arm, a red jewel dangling from a loop of metal in the center, and Alec recognizes his work. It was one of his early pieces, when he was still learning how to weave hot bands of metal into intricate swirls and knots, and he had been proud, offering it to the other siren as a gift, a thanks even.

"Rochelle," he answers in turn, eyes on the moving bodies around them. The fact that he is trapped does not go unnoticed.

"I warned you," Rochelle sighs, shaking her head and sending thick black curls out in different directions. Her tail moves slowly, long, thin fins curled like ribbons and glinting gold in the water, just barely keeping her even with him.

"I know," Alec smiles slightly, and feels as if he should apologize--but cannot, will not. Magnus is not something that he will ever apologize for.

She searches his eyes for a moment, before her face hardens into a cold mask, voice raising. "You've ignored my warnings, have consorted with a human that could threaten our home, and in doing so have lost your rights to that same home. I banish you, Alexander. Never return to these waters and never show your face again."

Alec bowed his head, sadness lapping at his heart like the gentle waves of the sea. He allowed a brief moment of weakness before refocusing on the swarm of mermaids still surrounding him. He would have time to grieve later, now he had to survive.

"Go," Rochelle commanded, the circle parting to let him past.

He nodded slightly, pausing to murmur a quiet _'thank you'_ before he passed his former sisters. He was barely a tail's length ahead before he darted towards the shore, tail working powerfully as he sliced through the water, desperate to get to land. He could not crawl up onto the sand, for the others would merely drag him back to the ocean in human form and drown him while he was still weak. Instead he had to hope he could make it to the gathering of rocks he and Magnus often visited. At that thought he distantly sent up a silent prayer for Magnus to stay away. He didn't want to think about what they'd do to him if the pirate was found.

Alec cried out as sharp fingered hands grabbed at his tail, poisoned claws digging into sensitive flesh. He thrashed wildly, managing to dislodge the hold with a sickening rip and a jolt of pain. He tried not to think about the tear that was surely in his fins and reminded himself that he would heal, if only he could get away in time. The siren struggled to push himself faster, the rocky ledge he needed to pull himself out with within a hundred feet.

A chorus of snarls and hisses echoed in his ears, making his eyes cross as he tried to navigate, hands reaching for his tail but never quite catching a firm hold. Scales peeled off and bits of flesh and blood stained the water, but still he swam on, lunging up out of the water to grasp at wet rock, squirming and wiggling desperately.

He bit back a scream when hands dug in deep to his tail, wide blue eyes peering back at the water to meet the flat black eyes of his dearest sister. She was gone to instincts now, as she bared her teeth and sunk them into his hip with a snarl. Others began to try to copy her, grasping wildly at what they could reach of his tail and feeding on his flesh. It was gruesome and painful and heartbreaking all in one and Alec had to survive. He quivered, clawing desperately at rock as he strained, inching up the ledge slowly but surely. Tears fell from his eyes, solidifying into pearls in the air before they hit the ground as his fins were shredded to ribbons, patches of scales torn clear off his tail. He managed to get his hips up, wiggling forward and smearing blood all over the rock, but still Rochelle hung on, ripping and tearing at his body as if she planned on biting clean through his tail and dragging it back to the caves with her.

"Stop!" He gritted out, thrashing weakly in her grip. "Rochelle... Sister..." Alec panted, reaching out to shove at her head, digging claws into her scalp and yanking her free from his bleeding flesh by wet curls. "Let me go."

She stared at him for a moment, something broken flashing through her predator’s eyes--and he recalled a hundred year’s worth of memories with her by his side, a welcome companion and leader--before with a single pearled tear and a snarl, she swiped at his chest, one last parting shot, before she leaped back into the sea of her hissing sisters, drawing them away from the rocks.

Alec trembled in relief, pain making his vision hazy as he pulled at his power, shedding his tail for legs as he dragged himself as far away from the ocean as he could get. The drain was exhausting and he knew that the amount of blood he'd lost, not to mention flesh, wasn't good for his survival, but his vision was fading, his body giving out before he could try to stop it.

"Magnus..." He rasped, eyes slipping closed.

He surrendered to the darkness.

**Author's Note:**

> I've become sort of fond of Rochelle in the short time it took to write this so I might write some more about Alec's past with her. Would anyone enjoy that?


End file.
